GlobalFoundries has hired three more executives from IBM for its cutting edge semiconductor "fab" near Malta, N.Y., including one who began his career in Vermont, and another who graduated from the University of Vermont with a degree in electrical engineering.

Tom Caulfield, senior vice president and general manager of GlobalFoundries' Fab 8 said in a statement that the three new hires, Mark Dougherty, George Jordhamo, and Debra Leach Riell, are three of the "best semiconductor technology and manufacturing leaders in the industry."

The financial media and others have been reporting for months, citing unnamed sources, that GlobalFoundries was talking to IBM about buying its semiconductor business, which includes the fab in Essex Junction, but those reports have died down in the last week as speculation has mounted that the deal is off.

Dougherty joins Fab 8 as the senior director, and will have overall responsibility of the advanced module engineering organization. Dougherty began his 22-year career with IBM in Essex Junction as part of the 300mm fab start-up leadership team in 2002, later playing leading roles in manufacturing engineering, equipment maintenance and manufacturing operations.

IBM ultimately decided to build its 300mm fab in East Fishkill, N.Y., rather than in Essex Junction. The measurement refers to the size of the wafer on which chips are manufactured and represents current state of the art. The fab in Essex Junction uses 200mm wafers, the previous generation of technology.

Dougherty most recently served as director of unit process development for IBM Microelectronics, based in Hopewell Junction, N.Y.

George Jordhamo joins GlobalFoundries as a senior director of diffusion and cleans in the advanced module engineering group. Jordhamo previously served as director in the RF/SiGe Specialty Foundry Business at IBM, leading the technology development, integration, characterization and fab controls teams during a 30-year career. He has been awarded seven U.S. patents.

Debra Leach Riell will be Fab 8's senior director of thin films and chemical mechanical planarization in the advanced module engineering group. Riell held a variety of engineering, management and business operations positions during her 24-year career with IBM. She has been awarded three U.S. patents, and graduated from UVM with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.

On July 13, GlobalFoundries placed an ad in the Burlington Free Press to announce the company is hiring technicians and maintenance workers at Fab 8. The ads only compounded the uncertainty felt by the thousands of Vermont IBM employees whose jobs have been hanging in the balance for months, if not years, as a series of workforce reductions in Essex Junction has taken employment levels from about 8,500 early in the 2000s to about 4,000 now. IBM no longer releases job figures site-by-site.

GlobalFoundries is based in Santa Clara, Calif., but is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, the seat of government for the United Arab Emirates. The company began building Fab 8 in July 2009, creating more than 20,000 new construction jobs and thousands of additional construction-related jobs. There are approximately 2,400 direct jobs at Fab 8 and GlobalFoundries expects to add 600 more jobs through the end of the year.

Spokesman Travis Bullard said GlobalFoundries will invest a total of about $10 billion in the plant.

Contact Dan D'Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DanDambrosioVT.